Personal Story
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue42 1–31 July 2023
You may have seen some ANU Enterprise Project Managers roaming around at Stromlo – who are they and what do they do?
As ANU Enterprise project team lead, I have the privilege of overseeing our project portfolio and leading our awesome team of Project Managers and Project Officers to support a range of interesting things at ANU – from bushfire reduction projects, to logistics for supercomputing conferences, to implementing international development programs, through to advanced instrumentation for astronomy and space. It is the variety of work that drew me to working at ANU Enterprise, and it has not failed to disappoint!
At AITC I am the Lead Project Manager for the MAVIS Consortium, led by Prof Francois Rigaut. The MAVIS instrument is an adaptive optics imager and spectrograph which will be installed on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) Unit Telescope 4 in Chile. The project is being led by Astralis-AITC, with a Consortium that also includes Astralis-MQ ('AAO' in Sydney), INAF (Italy), LAM (France), as well as ESO itself (Germany). There was a recent Lunations article about our recent success passing the Preliminary Design Review.
Project management wasn’t a career that I set out for, but rather one that found me. I studied Philosophy and Political Science at University, with my early career shaped by being raised in the industrial town of Wollongong – administration and operations support roles in corrosion engineering, ground shoring and dewatering systems. I then jumped to the government and worked in policy and procedure development, legislative change and internal communications, before heading overseas for a number of years in organisational development and operations management for DFAT funded development programs. Through these diverse experiences, I discovered that I enjoy being a generalist, setting up systems and organisations (like project teams) to help people achieve something. When I’m not project managing, you’ll find me in the vege patch with my three chickens, out on a trail exploring with my German Shepherd or nestled with a coffee and a New Philosopher magazine (read from that – trying very hard not to organise anything).
At AITC I provide support to Prof Celine D’Orgeville on the Giant Magellan Telescope Laser-Tomography Adaptive Optics (LTAO) and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) Ultimate Subaru project; and Prof Mike Ireland on the ESO based Heimdallr instrument. I also previously worked with Assoc Prof Francis Bennet on the recently announced Moon to Mars proposal.
Before moving to ANUE I came from an operations and logistics background with experience in the frontline health and not for profit education sectors (I spent a number of years running one of the largest maths competitions in the world – the Australian Maths Competition). At ANUE I manage a number of projects within the ANU including a Cultural Burning Project with the Fenner School, ACT Government Better Regulation project with RegNet and executive education projects across the university. What has attracted me most to working here with ANUE is the variety of projects, and interesting areas and people that I can work with.
When I’m not working, I tend to spend most of my time outside. I have a young family that keeps me very busy, and my boys are now at the age where they can come on adventures. This time of the year you’ll find us at the snow every weekend teaching my sons how to snowboard. In summer my family spend most weekends on the coast in a little off-grid cabin or walking into remote rivers to fish for trout.
I have been working with AITC since late 2021 with Prof Rob Sharp as the Project Manager on the Giant Magellan Telescope Integral Field Spectrograph (GMTIFS) and On Instrument Wavefront Sensor (OIWFS) projects. In that time, I have worked on a GMTIFS review, and supported the team to pull together two Estimates to Complete (to 2034). We are currently negotiating an extension to the contract and extending the PDR timeline and funding. I have been incredibly proud of our work on re-establishing the GMTIFS Project Team after it was paused in early 2020.
In my youth I wanted to be an astronaut and had goals of studying astrophysics at University. Life had other plans for me, and I pursued project management as an alternative as I like order, structure, and rules. Working on the GMTIFS project has provided me the opportunity to learn snippets of astrophysics from Rob, while supporting AITC in making a difference to the science community. While at ANUE, I have also managed projects with Physics and National Computational Infrastructure, which included recently delivering ALCS2023 at the Shine Dome.
In my downtime I enjoy spending time with my family (I have two sons with my wonderful husband), collecting vintage clothing, and spend my weekends baking, sewing (a lot of mending!), and gardening with my ducks and hens.
While I do not come from an astronomy background, I have always been interested in supporting researchers to deliver projects that take their incredible research out of the lab and apply it to benefit society. I was drawn to Project Management because I love a schedule, organising others and working through a to-do list.
You will regularly see me around AITC as I currently support Prof Anna Moore and ANU InSpace on establishing the iLAuNCH Program, which is about translational research for developing the space industry in Australia. As part of this program, AITC has four projects (and maybe more on the horizon) that include Prof Rob Sharp’s Multi-Sensor Detector project, Assoc Prof Francis Bennet’s Optical Communications Project and two projects led by Eduardo Trifoni utilising the National Space Test Facility to test satellites for industry partners.
I am an avid reader and will read almost anything. My ideal afternoon would be reading under the shade of the trees – well, as long as it is warm enough!
For further information on ANU Enterprise, visit our website and check out our video.
